Because Sammy the
Worm had made them laugh in the first days of their parents' divorce when
they had wondered if they'd ever laugh again, Loring and Clara would rush
to find their new friend each time they visited their father. They discovered
all kinds of games worms and Longies could play together, including Roll-The-Sammy,
in which Sammy curled up like a bowling ball and the girls rolled him
between them, and Bounce-A-Worm, in which Sammy lay on the trampoline
and one girl bounced him high while the other tried to catch him.

One bright and summery
day, however, they found a different worm in the garden, one wearing wire-rim
glasses and a tiny, green, oak-leaf apron around his middle. He was lying
on his back, sweeping dirt away from his wormhole with a dandelion broom.

"Why would anyone
sweep dirt away from a dirt hole?" wondered Loring. Clara, more inclined
to action than words, thrust her face next to the worm's to find out.
"Who're you, and what are you doing?" she demanded.

Far
from being startled that a Longie would speak to him, the worm (who
was actually Sammy's father) put down his broom, dusted himself off,
and began to present himself. "I'm Mr. Sammy-" he began. But that was
as far as he got.

"Glad
to meet you, Mr. Sammy," said Loring, and stuck out her hand to shake.

There
was an awkward pause during which Loring and Sammy's father both wondered
how to shake hands if one of you doesn't have a hand to shake with?!
Finally, he stood on his head and offered Loring his tail. She stood
on her feet and offered him her index finger. Sammy's father wrapped
himself around it, and finger and worm moved gently up and down together,
creating, perhaps, the world's first wormshake. And in the confusion
of the moment, Sammy's father never did get to tell them his full name.

When
Clara tried a wormshake, she shook Mr. Sammy so hard he felt like he
was riding a bucking beetle in the wormeo-- which the brave worm had
once tried in his younger days. He was just wondering if this would
also end with him flying into the wild blue yonder when Clara whipped
her finger particularly hard and the wormshake ended with Mr. Sammy
flying into the wild blue yonder.